Pahrump family

If you have been following this blog you know we have been in Pahrump, Nevada. Now you may ask "why would someone spend 2 weeks in Pahrump?" Well, Dick has a nephew that he has not seen or had contact with for over 40 years.

Let me tell you I (Dick) am sorry that I have not had contact with such a wonderful young man. It was such a pleasure to meet and spend some time with Tim Dahl and his girlfriend Kelli. Thanks Gail (his Mom) for opening up your home for such an entertaining evening and delicious dinner. We both enjoyed it very much.

We spent time together at our RV and also had fun last Monday night watching the family bowl.

Here is a picture from the dinner at Gail's. Left to right: Gail, Tim, Kelli, and Tracy (Gail's daughter).

I was able to get at least one good picture of Tim to share. Must have caught him off guard.
We had his mom, Gail, over for dinner last Friday and had a grand time talking about old times.

I did get a shot of Tim's sister Tracy after she got caught with her finger in the desert.

It was great fun visiting with them while in Pahrump, and we do plan to get back. Thanks again Tim, Kelli and Gail for welcoming us into your lives.

Lots of love

Dick and Jackie

To be continued...

Moon rise, sun set (again)

About 15 minutes ago the sun was setting so got the camera out (again) and took this one looking West from our RV, turned 180 degrees and took another one looking at the moon rising. Wow what a evening.
Yes that's snow on the top of the mountain here in Pahrump Nevada but still shorts and T shirts down in the desert.

To be continued...

Sunset in Pahrump

We spent another day in Death Valley. Lots more pictures and were hoping to take some at sunset. As it turned out the clouds moved in so no great pictures of the mountains at sunset. We decided to come home so we would be back before it got totally dark. We stopped in Pahrump to get something to eat and when we left the restaurant we were greeted by a sunset like we had never seen before. It must have stayed this way for over 20 minutes and the sky was still on fire when we got home.

Click on each, blow it up, save it to your desktop and enjoy.


Tried a different setting on the camera and not sure I like it but will share so you can be the judge.

To be continued...

No beach here, Death Valley California

We are now in Pahrump, NV. Death Valley, CA is just over an hour away. Thursday we made the drive. Wow, what a drive. Here we were at Dante's View, which is over 5000 ft, looking down at Badwater, which is 282 ft below sea level. It was cold and windy but when we got to the bottom it warmed up to 77 deg. What a sight of the valley surrounded by mountains.
Some of the views seem very surreal, yet beautiful.

Try clicking on some of these pictures to see the beauty.

At Zabriskie Point, the views were awesome, and seemed to go on forever. A couple from Europe took our picture and Dick took their's.

A moonscape? This is the floor of Death Valley.

Unfortunately the sun was setting as we drove through Artists Drive. The colors are incredible, but the sun shining on them would have been more impressive.

The color of the mountains are unbelievable, we hope to get back and get some shots before the sun sets.

And this coyote seemed to pose for us. We got to Badwater Basin after the sun had set, but we still had a little light to get a picture. We spent the entire day at Death Valley, and still only saw a portion. We plan to go back to see more of an incredible area. (And this is the perfect time of year to do it -- the highs are in the 70's, not the 100's.)

Badwater basin is the lowest spot in the western hemisphere, 282 feet below sea level. You can't see it here but this area is all salt.

We had to come back in the dark so missed the view of the last 50 miles, plus we still have over half of the valley still to see.

To be continued...

Newberry Springs California...

We left Redding California and continued south to Fresno and spent two nights there; nothing exciting and no pictures. We found we have a problem with the frame on our rig so decided we wanted to get it fixed in Nevada, so departed Fresno and headed south and then west.

We found a listing for a park in, of all places, a place called Newberry Springs, California. It was 5 miles off the highway in the desert. But it did advertise that it had two lakes. Sounded good to us at about $10.00 per night and two lakes.

When we finally got there, we pulled in to find a large hole in the ground with a bridge over it. Going further inside we did find a small "pond" so found a spot and hooked up. It turned out to be an okay spot because we only planned on spending one night.

This was our first stop that we found palm trees, a little short but still a palm tree.
When we arrived at the park there was not anyone around but we did have 3 greeters. One actually came up and tried to bite us.

When we left the next day we went to see the annual Newberry Springs pistachios festival in town. Town turned out to be a community center, an American Legion hall and a post office. It was an interesting visit. Here is one of the pistachio orchards. The festival was a gathering of several booths with people selling mostly imported items. Several had pistachios for sale, so we bought a bag. But the most interesting booth was selling memberships for a camping club -- a nudist camping club! They said we were welcome to come visit anytime!!!

Walking around the RV park the owner did plant some gardens and it was fun to see all the cactus plants.

Interesting way to recycle the empty bottles.

Next stop Nevada and family.

To be continued...

Redding California area

Other things we did in the Redding, CA area-- We rode our bike along the river trail. I think the trail was about 5 miles. Who is Dick's friend?
Oh, Jackie knows him, too. (And he seems to have acquired a helmet--maybe he'll ride with us!)

The Sundial Bridge is absolute gorgeous. It is a pedestrian, bike, bridge only. And probably beautiful at night, although we didn't have a chance to see it. The deck is all glass with lights under it. The trail we rode was by this bridge, and one day we took CC for a walk over the bridge and walked along the Sacramento river.

A drive along a local road revealed this old mine. The area used to be full of mines but are all closed now.

Another view of the mine:

To be continued...

Castle crags

North of Shasta Lake we came upon Castle Crags State Park. Unfortunately the trail to the viewpoint was closed. However, we were able to get a view of the mountains from a road next to the park.
Just a hint of color in the trees.

Along the road was this colorful river.

The sun was just about ready to set behind the hill so it was time to head back home.

And more mountains.

To be continued...